After 18 days of rehab, Alex Rodriguez is back to square one due to a quad injury. / Jeff Blake, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, adamant Sunday afternoon that he was healthy and ready to make his season debut, was told a few hours later that he has a Grade 1 left quadriceps strain, revealed by an MRI.

Instead of making his season debut in Texas, he will be going to the Yankees' spring-training facility in Tampa where he'll be sidelined another week to 10 days.

Then, who knows? Maybe another rehab assignment?

Or will Rodriguez be gone just long enough for Major League Baseball's investigative team to deliver its findings on Biogenesis, recommending a penalty that assures Rodriguez won't play again while Bud Selig is commissioner?

Is it possible that Rodriguez's quadriceps injury - the reported severity of which came as quite a surprise to Rodriguez - is merely part of a grand plan to fulfill the Yankees' wishes he never wear their uniform again?

Could this be evidence the Yankees need to prove that Rodriguez - who hurt his quad returning from major hip surgery in January - will never be able to physically perform at the major-league level again, permitting them to collect their insurance money and A-Rod to cash in the rest of his $114 million?

Plenty of questions, but typical in the drama surrounding A-Rod, there are never concrete answers.

"I hate even talking about it,'' says Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter, Rodriguez's manager in Texas when he won his first MVP in 2003. "It doesn't do any good. It really doesn't.''

The legendary tales about Rodriguez still reverberate in these parts, almost as if he's now a ghost, leaving only scratchy memories.

This, of course, is the place where it all started.

It is where Rodriguez became the face of baseball - physically and fiscally - with one mere signature, signing the largest contract in sports history - 10 years, $252 million with the Texas Rangers - stunning the sports world.

Just like that, Rodriguez became simultaneously revered, loathed, admired, and resented.

Now, 13 years later, nothing has changed. Only there is much more hatred. Bitterness. Frustration. And, yes, in some circles, even sympathy.

"He's my favorite player, and will always be my favorite player,'' Orioles All-Star third baseman Manny Machado told USA TODAY Sports on Sunday. "He loves the game, loves it to death. I hope he comes back and does great. It's unfortunate everything that has happened, but he's a great mentor for me, and always gives me encouragement.

"No matter what happens to him, he will always be my friend.

"There's a lot of people in the baseball world rooting for him, and a lot people like me want to see the old A-Rod come back and be the best.''

Those days, even Rodriguez realizes, are gone. Saturday, he will mark his 38th birthday, and his body is betraying him. He has had two hip surgeries the last four years, and only now is close to major league-ready after a grueling seven months returning from his left hip procedure in January.

There have never been any guarantees how long he'll last.

Now, there's no assurance he'll even get started.

"I am extremely disappointed with the results of the MRI,'' Rodriguez said in a statement, "and hoping to be back as soon as possible and continue with my goal of coming back and helping the Yankees win a championship.''

And, yes, there was a time when he was quite capable of doing just that, Showalter remembers.

"He was something,'' Showalter says. "God, he was good. You could tell he loved to play. He had a real innocence about him, and he was sincere.

"He could dial up whatever you needed, playing a premium position.''

Indeed, it was right here, deep in the heart of Texas, where Rodriguez established himself as the greatest player in the game outside Barry Bonds. He averaged 52 homers and 132 RBI, winning the 2003 American League Most Valuable Player award.

"He was signed with a pure heart,'' Showalter says. "He was traded with a pure heart.''

It was here where the Rangers could no longer afford him, dumping him after only three years, back in the days when the Yankees actually spent money, and acted like today's Los Angeles Dodgers.

"To have that much money invested in one player,'' Showalter says, "we had to move him to put together the club we wanted.

"Was it hard parting with the player and the statistics? Of course.

"Was it something that had to be done for us to move forward as an organization? Yes.''

And it was also here, Rodriguez admits, when he began using steroids and performance-enhancing drugs on a team enriched in a drug culture, with many of its stars considered among the biggest steroid-users in the game.

Rodriguez insists he stopped using performance-enhancing drugs after he left Texas.

MLB investigators have reason to believe he never stopped.

The truth may emerge within the next couple of weeks when MLB investigators meet with Michael Weiner, director of the Major League Players Association, and his staff. They will lay out all of the evidence and their recommended penalties. The union will turn to the players, and find out whether they want to accept the punishment, fight for a reduced suspension, or challenge the suspension well into the winter with a lengthy appeal.

There could be at least a dozen players who receive suspensions, maybe more if minor-league players are included, but none will be bigger than Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, the face of baseball destined to be the heir apparent to Barry Bonds' home run record, now is only the face of Biogenesis.

"I feel bad because he loves the game so much,'' Machado says. "Do you know he sent me a text on my (21st) birthday this month? He congratulated me and said, "Happy Birthday. Keep doing your thing.' That's what kind of guy he is. He's always giving me encouragement.

"For a guy that has so much on his plate right now, to send me a text message, it shows you what an awesome guy he is. That's Alex. I still have a signed baseball from him. It's the greatest gift I ever got from a ballplayer. I will always cherish it.''

Yet, that wondrous gift of baseball talent Rodriguez provided us for nearly two decades, may be gone forever.